Fires at City Power substations in Johannesburg estimated to cost R106 million to restore

What happened

Over about 18 months to June 2023, at least seven fires were reported at City Power substations in Johannesburg. The latest named was the Brixton traction substation, less than a week after a fire at a City Power substation in Soweto. The fires caused significant inconvenience for residents and compounded load shedding. Not all of the affected substations were fully operational afterwards. City Power estimated that restoring them to full capacity would cost R106 million, and reported an asset renewal backlog of R3.6 billion on substations and transmission lines.

Contributing factors

City Power said the fires were linked to a range of issues, including theft and vandalism, rolling blackouts and overloading of transformers. An energy expert quoted in the report also pointed to ageing equipment, poor maintenance and missing protective devices, but those points were not confirmed as the cause of these fires.

Lessons learned

1. Treat theft, vandalism, rolling blackouts and transformer overload as concurrent risks at urban substations.
2. Fund predictive and preventative maintenance, and replacement of ageing transformers, so renewal does not sit as a large backlog.
3. Keep contingency plans required by the regulator in place for every substation and usable after a fire.

Source

dailymaverick.co.za